1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, polymerizable liquid crystal composition and polymer useful in various applications such as optical members of which examples include optically anisotropic films and heat-shielding films, and also relates to films employing these.
2. Background Art
Recently, the demands for liquid crystal displaying devices, having a smaller size, are more and more increased; and in accordance with increasing of the demands, the demands for optical films, having a thinner thickness, also are more and more increased. For example, using liquid crystal having high Δn for preparing optical films such as retardation films may contribute to making the thickness thereof thin. Δn is one of the important properties of a liquid crystal compound; and a liquid crystal compound, having high Δn, is useful in various technical fields of optical elements such as retardation plates, polarizing elements, selective reflection films, color filters, anti-reflection films, optical compensation films, holography, and alignment layers (D. J. Broer, G. N. Mol, J. A. M. M. Van Haaren, and J. LubAdv. Mater., 1999, 11, 573).
Previously, various compounds having a cinnamate group have been proposed as a polymerizable liquid crystal compound (JP-A-2005-120091, JP-A-2009-149754, WO2006/010431, WO2005/014756, WO2004/090025 and GB 2306470).